Checkup or Check Up
What is the Difference Between Checkup and Check Up?
In this post, I will compare checkup vs. check up. I will include multiple example sentences for each term, so you will be able to see them in context.
Then, I will demonstrate how to use a mnemonic device that will help you remember whether check up or checkup is correct.
When to Use Checkup
What does checkup mean? A checkup is a secondary appointment. This word is a noun. People go to their doctors for a medical checkup or to a financial adviser for a retirement planning checkup.
Here are a few more examples,
- “Before you leave, we should schedule you for a checkup in about six months,” said the receptionist.
- I sent my boss an email letting him know that I would be in at noon today, after my checkup.
- Fortunately, there is a short financial checkup that effectively predicts what I think of as the key components of financial health–including short-term and long-term savings, management of financial products and financial literacy. –The Wall Street Journal
The plural form of checkup is checkups. The adjective form of this word is check-up. An appointment used for the purpose of checking up would be called a check-up appointment.
When to Use Check Up
What does check up? Check up is a verb phrase. It means to review or monitor progress, usually to ensure that something is still going as planned or to watch for warning signs.
A doctor might check up on her patients during her daily rounds to ensure that their health is improving as expected or a girlfriend might check up on her boyfriend to ensure that he is not flirting with other girls.
Here are few more examples:
- Some parents like to visit school to check up on their children and make sure they are safe and happy.
- Ellie scrolled through the text messages on Henry’s phone to make sure he wasn’t still talking to his ex-girlfriend, Julia.
Trick to Remember the Difference
Now, let’s go over a trick to remember check up vs. checkup.
- As a single word, checkup is a noun.
- As two words, check up is a verb.
- When hyphenated words, check-up is an adjective.
While these three spellings are quite similar, they cannot be freely exchanged. Checkup is always a noun, check up is always a verb phrase, and check-up is always an adjective.
Since the words check and up are a verb and a preposition, respectively, as long as you can remember the meanings of these individual words, you should be able to remember that the phrase check up is a verb phrase.
Summary
Is it checkup or check up? Despite their similar spellings, these words are all used as different parts of speech.
- A checkup is an event where reviewing or monitoring takes place.
- To check up is to review or monitor something
- The hyphenated adjective check-up describes such an event.
